How to build a website that won’t bounce visitors away

In recent years, the online world has exploded with so many websites that it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage and retain a customer or a viewer. A good website is your first step towards getting the attention of your visitor and converting them into a customer. Their engagement ultimately depends on your ability to keep them hooked to your experience, products and offerings.

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A seamless browsing experience is what most businesses want to provide to their customers. But what do they mean by this? Gone are the days when a good-looking design and a fast-loading page were the two basic components of an optimal user interface. The story doesn’t end there. It's good that modern web developers pay significant attention to the way everything is organised on the site and how fast the content loads on various devices. However, there are plenty of other factors that demand close attention:

Making the site navigation-friendly

Ensure that your website is easy to navigate for a first-time user and has all the relevant information highlighted on the header and footer. Highlight vital details you would wish for your users to notice or click on. There are some basic alignment of fonts and icons that are universal for most websites. For instance, in online shopping sites, the cart is always right-aligned above the main footer. Try to keep these consistent according to universal standards to avoid confusion for your users.

Play with visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words. Visually-attractive websites are always more appealing than just plain text. Try to have tasteful, high resolution images wherever need. Use enough images, but take care not to overdo them.

Emphasising important links

It is important that the information on your website can be personalised for your users to provide them with a unique experience. Let’s say you are a website selling and renting used goods, you will have multiple buyers and sellers who will be visiting your website for different needs. Have a screen that can direct the users to right sections. You could include such links:

• Buy used goods here
• Browse used goods here
• Sell used good here
• Rent used good here
• Are you a vendor? Register for rental

Build trust

This applies to online stores. You only have a couple of seconds to convince a user to shop from you or even browse through your website. Hence, it is important to include customer testimonials. They help gain visitor confidence and aid in converting them into customers. It is important that your testimonials are original. So always ask for your customer’s name, city and picture to validate your claim.

Add value

Offer something useful to your customer that makes them visit them your website for more. ‘Content is king’ is an overused phrase, but it still holds true. Providing meaningful content, eBook downloads and limited free subscription to updates, live events or viral content is a great way to connect with your audience. If not this, it can be something as simple as providing live tracking facility on your website so that customers will revisit your website to track their shipment.

Keep it simple

Don’t add too many complicated layers to your site, making it difficult for your customer to access information or view products. People love surfing websites, but it does get tiring to skip through many pages to reach the final product. Take this example:

Home > Accessories > More > Shoes > Women shoes > Types > Wedges

And now, take this one:

Home> Women Accessories > Shoes > Wedges

Which one would you prefer?

Make hassle-free payment your motto

In case you are building an ecommerce website, the last and final step to collecting your moolah is a critical. Consider choosing payment partners who can facilitate a glitch-free process. Alternatively, have a toll-free number and other a help line to assist customers check out from your website.

Use call-to-action content to attract your visitors

Pushing out attractive CTA buttons can be a great convertor. Never let your visitors leave without getting their information for further use. A simple newsletter subscription pop-up or the offer of giving a certain percentage discount can help you get social media followers and valid email IDs. Make it a point to give a tempting offer in return for your visitor’s info.

There are numerous ways to capture the attention of visitors on your website. Creating a site isn’t difficult. In fact, today you can do it easily with Shopify or Wordpress. Make a plan for your website so that it attracts your visitors. Be sure to consistently revamp your site and keep it updated and live for visitors.